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“Was,” Hive said. “The Hive Mind is what Iwas, now Iamthis,” he said, pointing a finger toward his sternum. He took his other hand and pointed down at his cock. “And this.”
I wanted to grab hold of Kaav's arm and scream. Why was he playing it like this? He could have made a less fantastic claim. It would have worked so effortlessly. The Hive Mind uploading itself into a single body and abandoning all of the pack ships? That was a hard sell.
“Chief Hypatia,” Hive said, “with respect, I have other, more important negotiations to navigate right now. If you don’t mind, I’d like to speak with these two alone.”
“I mind,” Chief said. “I’m going to listen to everything you have to say. I don’t buy your story, and I’m going to need convincing.”
He did the wave of the hand thing. I’d never seen a hand gesture look so authoritatively dismissive. He said without a single word that he was going to becompletelyignoring Hypatia right now, and with that, his silver eyes met mine. They held me transfixed. I didn’t even dare to breathe.
When he turned his back on Chef, she visibly seethed, but he just smiled at me as if Chef had already left. Then he looked up at Kaav.
“What have you told her so far?” Hive asked.
“You know exactly what I’ve told her,” Kaav said, “you thieving piece of shit.”
Hive rolled his eyes. “I won’t be omniscient for long—in fact, I’ve already lost most of that—so let’s start practicing as if I didn’t know everything.”
“I told you that the Hive Mind was making deals with me,” Kaav said.
Wait.Wait. Why was this no longer sounding like a trick for Hypatia? Was Hive a real person? Hewasthe Hive Mind?
“I told him I’d owe him something,” Kaav said, “if he helped me get you offWrath. He helped me, and I agreed I’d owe him. I made two stipulations though, that I wouldn’t give up you, and that I wouldn’t give up my cock.”
Kaav glared at Hive.
“And I promised you that yourgoldencock was all yours.”
“So he got my silver body,” Kaav said, shaking his head.
“Time out,” Chef said, stepping forward. “You’re—”
“Yes, I had two bodies,” Kaav said. “Until I made a deal with the devil. But you have to hear him out, My Weapon. I hate to say it, but he’sveryconvincing.”
“You’re sure you want to hear this?” Hive said, looking back over his shoulder to Chef, “it concerns intimate details of heterosexual mating practices. I doubt it would interest you.”
“I’m not leaving this airlock until you’re done talking,” Chef said.
Hive licked his silver lips, and his eyes fell on my chest again. “I’ll be done talking very soon, Crew Chief. I just need to get her to consent.”
“Good Goddess,” Chef said, throwing up her hands. “You’re just after Weapons’ kitten? Really? You’ve given up omniscience, super-intelligence, and Goddess-like control of matter for akitten?”
Hive smirked at Hypatia. “You’re fighting awfully hard for some pussy too, Crew Chief. You wouldn’t say you’re doing it for pussy though. You’d say you were doing it for your way of life, or for the woman you love. You’d never reduce her to a merekitten. And I wouldn’t do the same with Weapons either.”
I cleared my throat. “Um, are you seriously telling me this is the Hive Mind? Kaav, tell me this is an elaborate joke.” I leaned in closer to him and hissed in a low whisper that I hoped Chef wouldn’t hear. “I thought you were making up Hive to trick her! I was playing along!”
Kaav shook his golden head at me. His lips were pressed tightly together. “It most certainly is not a joke or a trick. I wish it were.”
Hive grinned wide. “I’ve been preparing for this for a long time. I’ve spent millions of years shaping the physical bodies of the Khetar further and further toward perfection, but we’ve reached diminishing returns. I could keep perfecting us until the heat death of the universe and only come marginally nearer to perfection. This,” he said, reaching down and gripping his cock by the base, “is close enough to physical perfection, even for me.” He squeezed, and the cock twitched and swelled. I found myself taking a step closer to him. My hand wanted to reach out for it, and I fought hard to hold my hand back.
I’d used a sexual fantasy to convince myself Hive was real, and now my brain and body were still running away with that fantasy. I reminded myself, very forcefully, that Hive wasnotKaav, and Kaav was my lifemate. I stepped backward until I was behind Kaav. I wrapped my arms around his body, and then I put a hand around his cock. I squeezed, just like Hive had squeezed himself, and Kaav’s golden cock started to harden in my palm.
Hive looked to Hypatia. “You wanted proof? My powers are rapidly fading, but your girlfriend is being held in Ginsburg as leverage against you. I can bring her aboard theEve’s Rib. Would you like me to do that?”
Chef Hypatia had looked very much like High Command for the last several hours. If anything, she’d looked more and more like it with each passing hour, but in this one instant that all fell away. Her face became that of the friend I’d made, and the woman who’d confided to me in the mess hall. Still, she guarded her hope and raised a finger to Hive. “If you are lying or tricking me, I swear to Goddess I will—”
A woman appeared right behind her. One moment she hadn’t been there, the next she was there with us. She had long, curly blonde hair, and she was wearing a white dress. She spun around, and her jaw dropped open when she saw Hypatia.
The two women hugged each other, and I saw the blonde woman’s hand grip Chef by the meat of her ass and squeeze.
